Composing Music With Computers: Good Art or Bad?

Upper elementary music students are ready to begin assimilating the essential elements of music they have been learning about since kindergarten. They are beginning to move beyond showing their responses and understanding with their bodies and voices, and are becoming equipped to engage in higher level discussion about the music they hear, to interpret musical notation on their own, and to begin some level of guided musical composition. In this unit, students will have the opportunity to increase these musical skills through the vehicle of learning about the exciting advancements at the crossroads of artificial intelligence and music, especially music composition. There are a lot of interesting articles and videos documenting both good and bad results and reactions to this sometimes controversial intersection. This is the kind of thought-provoking information that students preparing for success in the 21st century marketplace can clearly benefit from. The activities developed will give students a better understanding of what musicians and composers have been doing for centuries, as well as create some exciting glimpses into the rapidly expanding possibilities of problem solving and creating as we look to the future, both in music, and in a myriad of other subjects!